How should west respond to potential (likely) Russian invasion of Ukraine?

[steve_bank]

Ukrainian refugees in Washington.

To hell with Putin and anyone who supports or goes along with him.

Everette is about 30 minutes north of Seattle.

Approximately 16,000 are seeking refuge here, and more are coming every day.

Yevgeniya Matsegora came to Washington with her mother and two children, leaving her husband behind to defend her homeland.

"I miss home," she says, through a translator. "I want to go home. We had plans for the future and those plans ended on Feb. 24th."

Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, sending 8 million people fleeing for safety. Over 16,000 of them have landed in Washington.

The transition to life in America can be a tough one. Volunteers from RISNW help them navigate it.

Every Friday they come together to learn English, pick up donated clothing and housewares. They're also provided a hot Ukrainian meal, bags of food and assistance finding work, housing, a drivers license and schooling for their children.

 

[T.G.G. Moogly]

I think barbos probably watched that propaganda film "The Witness" maybe a thousand times already. Must be pretty bad because Russian theaters showing it are showing it to an empty room. Hail Putin!

BTW, how many Nazis are still left in Ukraine....barbos...anyone...?

And I see that no one from Iran, Putinstan or Little Putinstan (Belarus) has been invited to the Nobel Ceremonies. That's okay, though, lots of Nazis still need hunted down. Important stuff to take care of at home and all.

 

[bilby]

Barbos, are the Russian people better or worse for Putn's war?

Nothing really changed economic situation wise since the start of Biden's war.

Can't get a real McDonald's hamburger anymore.

Probably not, but there would be some downsides as well.

 

[barbos]

From documentaries, the political pundits, and Putin himself his goal is to reform the Soviet Union

They are all liars.

 

[laughing dog]

From documentaries, the political pundits, and Putin himself his goal is to reform the Soviet Union

They are all liars.

If you know Putin is a liar, why do you persist in disseminating his lies?

 

[barbos]

Barbos, are the Russian people better or worse for Putn's war?

Nothing really changed economic situation wise since the start of Biden's war.

Can't get a real McDonald's hamburger anymore.

It changed their name, same crap I heard. I myself was in McDonald's only couple of times while in US.

 

[barbos]

Nothing like Russia, China, or North Korea

The difference is that you are ruled by Politburo of mostly MIC and media and business in general oligarchs.
There are money to be made (for oligarchs) in this illegal war your corrupt government started with Russia

Vodkastan started the wars. Invading East Ukraine. Invading Crimea. Attacking Ukraine and failing to take Kyiv. Do not blame the U.S. for starting "this illegal war". Russia did that. Repeatedly.

US started all this in 2014. Don't blame Russia for fixing the mess you created in Ukraine.

 

[barbos]

He blamed the west and the US for the Soviet collapse

Well, Your politicians "blamed" it on themselves.

 

[steve_bank]

From documentaries, the political pundits, and Putin himself his goal is to reform the Soviet Union

They are all liars.

MacDonald's pulled out and it was confiscated r by the government. I wonder what the meat is on the burgers. Fried rat and dog?

A good summary of Russia and Putin.

Vladimir Putin: The rebuilding of ‘Soviet’ Russia

The world was stunned when Russia invaded Crimea, but should it have been, asks author and journalist Oliver Bullough.

www.bbc.com

This was President Boris Yeltsin's fifth premier in 16 months, and one confused party leader got the name wrong. He said he would support the candidacy of Stepashin - the surname of the recently sacked prime minister - rather than that of his little-known successor, before making an embarrassing correction.

If even leading Duma deputies couldn't remember the new prime minister's name, you couldn't blame the rest of the world if it didn't pay much attention to his speech. He was unlikely to head the Russian government for more than a couple of months anyway, so why bother?

That man was a former KGB officer, Vladimir Putin, and he has been in charge of the world's largest country, as president or prime minister, ever since. Few realised it at the time, because few were listening, but that speech provided a blueprint for pretty much everything he has done, for how he would re-shape a country that was perilously close to total collapse.

ust 364 days previously, Russia had defaulted on its debt. Salaries for public sector workers and pensions were being paid months late, if at all. Basic infrastructure was collapsing. The country's most prized assets belonged to a handful of well-connected "oligarchs", who ran the country like a private fiefdom.

How the Soviet Union's Fall Pushed Putin to Try and Recapture Russia's Global Importance | HISTORY

While serving in the KGB in East Berlin, Putin was shocked and humiliated to experience the collapse of Soviet power firsthand.

www.history.com

Putin felt he was watching one of the largest and most powerful empires the world had ever seen unravel in the most pathetic and humiliating way. “I had the feeling that the country was no more,” he recalled later in a series of interviews published in 2000. “It had disappeared.”

He seemed to mourn not the human cost or material tribulations, but the national humiliation of a powerful state simply imploding. He later claimed to have had a sense for some time that the collapse of Soviet power in Europe was inevitable. “But I wanted something different to rise in its place. And nothing different was proposed. That’s what hurt. They just dropped everything and went away.”
To Restore Russian's 'First-Tier' Status, Putin Invoked Its History

Putin is fantasizing. The great Russian empire had empty sotre shelves and had to keep peoplee in. The Berlin Wall was to keep people in not out.

I remebber the video of both East and West Berliners teariing down the wall.

Doomsayer on Putin

putin video sayng he will ecrete the soviet union - Google Search

When the Soviet Union collapsed with one or two exceptions the former Soviet states opted for the EU and NATO. That says it alla about the glorious poweful Soviet empire.

 

[barbos]

Over here some people follow the British royals and TV shows

I can do that too. I watch Doctor Who. In fact it's still running on TV officially.
I don't want it dubbed into russian so I simply torrent it. Same with american TV shows. NFL (highlights) can be watched on youtube.
Late shows on youtube and torrent. In fact one can watch some of channels directly from the US. Some providers don't have any security, just run IP-TV for anyone who wants it, regardless of geo-location.
As I said earlier I have never been fan of Russian TV shows.

She could just have been fined, instead she was treated like a criminal and turned into a political hostage.

She could not have been fined. And if I remember correctly she was exchanged with russians who were illegally arrested in US.

 

[barbos]

A good summary of Russia and Putin.

Good means bad?

 

[barbos]

We know in Russia the government controls social and news media. I wonder how you and other Russians think about life over here and in Europe and the western nations.

While we are having issues with inflation and people at the bottom paying for food, our grocery stores are well stocked with fresh vegetables, fruit, chicken, beef, and pork. Plenty of milk, cheese, and eggs. Each and every day.

In any large grocery store in my area I can get wine, beer, liquor, and other foods from around the world.

You appear to be living in the 1980s, if you think this sets your home town apart from those in which the Russians are living.

Russian stores aren't empty anymore. And haven't been since the collapse of communism, more than thirty years ago.

Under communism, every person could afford meat, but there wasn't any in the shops, so they ate cabbage.

Under capitalism, the shops are full of delicious cuts of meat, at prices most people can't afford, so they eat cabbage.

Unsurprisingly, many people preferred the old way, because at least they didn't suffer the fate of Tantalus.

People can afford meat and all kind of food now. In Russia you can buy everything you have in US.
At the end of USSR you can buy meat rarely, and eat stuff like apples and oranges on a New Year only.
There are fat kids in Russia now, not as many as in US but they are visible.
Sanctions did not work.

 

[barbos]

When the Soviet Union collapsed with one or two exceptions the former Soviet states opted for the EU and NATO. That says it alla about the glorious poweful Soviet empire.

Nobody really opted for NATO.

 

[steve_bank]

Well Barbos, today was a big party day across the USA celebrrating the start of the college footbal season. You shoud see the crowds.

Nobody gives a thought to the fetid swamp that is Russia.

I sincerely hope others in Russia read this forum along with other forums in the west. Russia could disapear into a hole in the ground and nobody would notice.

Invite your friends to post here.

There is a lot of empathy for Ukraine, none for Russia. Russia who suffered greatly in WWI is now inflicting the same suffering on Ukraine. Today Russia is the Nazis.

 

[barbos]

. You shoud see the crowds.

I have seen these crowds, they were impressive.
I even had two football players in the class I was assisting teaching.

There is a lot of empathy for Ukraine, none for Russia

There ARE people in the US who are better informed and I will let you know a little secret, people in Academia ARE better informed

 

[barbos]

Nobody gives a thought to the fetid swamp that is Russia.

Lots of american expats will disagree. Moscow is very nice place to live.

 

[barbos]

Russia could disapear into a hole in the ground and nobody would notice.

Sorry man, Ukraine will disappear too, cause it IS Russia as well.

 

[barbos]

music is good

 

[Copernicus]

There is a lot of empathy for Ukraine, none for Russia

There ARE people in the US who are better informed and I will let you know a little secret, people in Academia ARE better informed

Barbos is right, but he isn't in academia. In fact, he has no idea what those "better informed" people think about Russia's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, because he gets most of his information from social media, not academia. In fact, I'm pretty sure that he doesn't know much about what goes on in academia inside of Russia.

 

[barbos]

Ukrainian refugees in Washington.

...have to be in line with neocon narrative or else.

There are stories about ukrainian soldiers in russian captivity expecting mistreatment and surprised by the opposite.

I think it was reported that Ukraine had ~13K deserters, and probably millions of people who avoid conscription by any means possible.
Ukraine's army is near collapse, there is simply not enough able people left, and most of them don't want to die so that piece of shit Biden avoids going to prison.